Yadiel Hernandez has two stints on the Nationals roster already this season, once because of the club's end-of-spring COVID-19 outbreak and once because of Juan Soto's shoulder strain. He entered Saturday having taken 11 plate appearances in eight games, starting only one of them. So what did the 33-year-old rookie outfielder think when he learned he not only was in Saturday's lineup against the Mets, but would be batting second? "In reality, I wasn't expecting it," he said during a Zoom...

Break up the alternate site Orioles. They are an unbeaten club. The group of players that provide insurance for the roster of the big league team as the wait for the minor league season to start May 4 are 4-0 in games where box scores have been provided. They have scored 38 runs in winning four versus the Nationals alternate squad camp roster. The Orioles posted some information on their player development Twitter account. During the Friday broadcast on MASN, O's executive vice president and...

The Orioles are recalling pitching prospect Zac Lowther from the alternate training site in Bowie, according to an industry source, and he'll be available in the bullpen for Sunday afternoon's series finale against the Athletics. Wade LeBlanc, who started tonight, will be designated for assignment to create roster space. Lowther, who turns 25 on Friday, is the No. 11 prospect in the system, according to MLBPipeline.com, and he's on the verge of making his major league debut. The Orioles...

Davey Martinez sat in a portion of the visitors' clubhouse at Citi Field designated for Zoom press conferences around 1:30 p.m. today and expressed a profound desire for his Nationals to do something in particular in their upcoming game against the Mets. "I think we need to start scoring earlier in the game," the Nats manager said. "We've been scoring runs late. We need to start scoring runs early to take a little bit of pressure off our starting pitching, and see where that takes...

Orioles pitcher Keegan Akin lost his chance to come back to the majors for a spot start after cutting his left index finger in a kitchen accident that required stitches. Manager Brandon Hyde confirmed the injury earlier today in his Zoom call with the media. Wade LeBlanc got the assignment tonight with Akin unavailable as an option. Hyde said Akin sliced the finger after breakfast. "He's got stitches for a week to 10 days," Hyde said. "It was somebody that we would have probably considered...

If the rain holds off, we should get a few answers to a few questions tonight. Such as, will the O's offense struggle again? And, can anyone soon beat the Oakland Athletics? The A's beat the Orioles 3-1 last night to improve to 13-7. They are 13-1 with 12 wins in a row since an 0-6 start. At the beginning of this season they were losing by scores of 8-1, 9-1 and 10-3, but their last loss was April 8 - more than two weeks ago. Oakland has outscored its opponents 74-34 during this win streak...

When you count the growing list of Orioles bullpen pitchers that are throwing well, be sure to include right-hander Cole Sulser. He made a few minor adjustments and tweaks since last season, when he also got off to a good start, in hopes of seeing a solid season through to the end. The 31-year-old right-hander went 1-5 with a 5.56 ERA last season when his ERA dropped, hitting 8.38 over his last nine games. In 2021 his ERA is 0.00 and he's allowed just 0.789 WHIP thus far. That covers 6 1/3...

Left-hander Wade LeBlanc is making tonight's start against the Athletics at Camden Yards, his first in 2021 after five relief appearances. LeBlanc hasn't thrown more than 24 pitches or exceeded 1 1/3 innings since the Orioles broke camp. There's going to be some baton passing, perhaps in the rain. In 10 career appearances against the Athletics, LeBlanc has gone 3-1 with a 4.40 ERA and 1.234 WHIP in 47 innings. DJ Stewart is in right field again tonight and Austin Hays is starting in left....

Few right now would envy Davey Martinez, whose challenge to fill out a nightly lineup card is about as daunting as it's been at any point in his four seasons as Nationals manager. Juan Soto is on the injured list. Josh Bell and Kyle Schwarber are slumping. And Anthony Rendon is in Anaheim (albeit injured himself). So on the heels of a 6-0 loss to Jacob deGrom and the Mets - the Nats' fourth shutout loss in 17 games to begin the season - Martinez recognized he needed to try something different...

The Nationals had no chance last night against Jacob deGrom. They can only hope to have a better opportunity for success today against Marcus Stroman. Stroman doesn't have nearly deGrom's track record, but he's been no less effective to begin the season. The right-hander, who opted out of the 2020 campaign, is 3-0 with an 0.90 ERA, having shut down the Phillies twice and the Rockies once. Unlike deGrom, Stroman is a pitch-to-contact guy. He has only 11 strikeouts in 20 innings to date. But...